The invention relates to a device for either generating or maintaining an organic network having a dynamic topology, a method for it and a carrier provided with software for it.
It is known for instance from U.S. Pat. No. 6,052,178, to duplicate a server in an internet environment to relieve the main server. In those cases however the entire server software and complete files of the server are duplicated. This first of all is too large a burden for the duplicate. Additionally not any given computer will be suitable for that purpose, let alone any given computer requesting information to the server (the “client”). Additionally it is not possible to offer a client an optimal transfer speed of the content in this way by an intelligent choice of the route or possibly another, closer (regarding the transfer speed) (duplicate) server.
Additionally it is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,783 to provide data packages with software (Java Applets) with which the content of the data packages or other data can be processed on the receiving computer. In this case, however, there is no question of communication, but of distributed processing. One large task is divided over several agents, wherein each agent carries out a part of the task and is in contact with the common server.
Additionally a network (“multicast network”) of nodes is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,167 which nodes, however, are each part of a hierarchic system. Each node is centrally controlled here by means of a central node.
In Onn Shehory et al., Agent Cloning: an Approach to Agent Mobility and Resource Allocation, IEEE Communications Magazine, July 1998, a multi-agent system is described comprising agents which can duplicate themselves on remote computers when overload of the agent occurs. The duplicate agent is hierarchically placed below the original agent. This requires an overhead structure. An agent is sent out to perform a task, and reports back to its origin.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,240 a system of agents is described. The agent devices are managed by an overlaying structure. Thus, the system requires an overhead structure.